Electronic commerce has become a popular method for conducting business and selling items (such as goods or services) to customers. In many electronic commerce systems, information about items offered for sale or lease is provided to potential customers through a user interface accessible via an electronic network. The information provided by such systems is generally chosen to include information that would be of interest to potential customers. Such information may include, for example, an offering price for the item, features of the item, information regarding a particular merchant or seller offering the item, shipping information for the item, and customer reviews for the item.
In some instances, an electronic commerce system may offer multiple variations of the same or similar item. A particular type of women's shoes, for example, may be available for purchase in different sizes, colors, materials and/or styles. In addition, a particular item may be offered for sale or lease by more than one seller or merchant. To accommodate such variation, some electronic commerce systems may provide, in addition to information about a particular item, a user interface that allows a user to select attribute values for one or more attributes of the item prior to either selecting the item for purchase or adding the item to an electronic shopping cart. In such systems, however, once the user has selected a given set of attribute values for an item and added the configured item to a shopping cart or an order, the system typically does not allow the user to modify the item's attribute values prior to purchase or shipment of the order without removing the previously configured item from the shopping cart or order, and/or adding a newly configured item to the shopping cart or order. In such systems, the selected item attribute values of an item essentially become static or immutable once the item is added to the shopping cart or order.